I’m writing you from the Oslo Freedom Forum, in the Norwegian capital. At the previous gathering of the OFF, in October, I interviewed a young woman named Ti-Anna Wang. For a write-up, go here.

The daughter of a Chinese couple, Ti-Anna was born and raised in Montreal. At some point, her father, Wang Bingzhang, decided to devote himself to the Chinese democracy movement. He was imprisoned by the Party when Ti-Anna was 13. He has spent at least ten years in solitary confinement. He is in miserable shape.

His daughter has devoted a fair amount of her young life to campaigning for his release. She didn’t choose this, but she doesn’t gripe about it. On the contrary: “It’s a privilege to be given this mission, to take part in such a noble cause,” she says.

“She is a big woman,” I wrote last year. A “generous-hearted woman. If I were in her shoes, would I have [her] attitude? I don’t know.”

I asked Ti-Anna to tell me about her unusual name. I’ll now quote some more from that write-up:

She was born on May 11, 1989. The Tiananmen Square demonstrations were just beginning (I believe). She went home from the hospital without a name. She was just Baby Wang. Her mother took her in a stroller to a rally in support of the democrats back in China. And, of course, on June 4, the Communists carried out their massacre.
Ti-Anna was named in honor of the Tiananmen Square victims.
So, she was kind of marked from the beginning — marked by politics. Is that fair to do to a child? I don’t know. But it is done. One could argue all sorts of ways, I imagine.

I found Ti-Anna quite moving to talk to. She was unassuming and matter-of-fact — but obviously determined. At the end of my write-up, I said,

From what I have seen and heard from her, Ti-Anna Wang is a brave, good, and treasurable girl. (I’m sorry if I’m not supposed to say “girl,” but I’ve never been much good about following certain language rules . . .)

Why am I bringing up all this now? Her supporters are helping her with a campaign — with the campaign, you might say. Ti-Anna is getting married in July. Naturally, she would like her father to be there. She is hoping he will be granted medical parole.

At this page, you will find a petition, for anyone to sign; a letter from Wang Bingzhang to Ti-Anna; and two letters from Ti-Anna — to President Obama and Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper.

Let me note, with a dollop of bitterness and disgust, that Obama has not been able to get his fellow Nobel peace laureate out of prison. That’s Liu Xiaobo, who was given the award, in absentia, the year after Obama collected his.

Yesterday, I was talking with two women who work in Iranian human rights. It occurred to me: Not only are we Americans unable to do anything for Iranian political prisoners. We are unable to get American prisoners out of Iran. This seems to be the state of American clout.

In any case, Ti-Anna Wang is doing as much for her father as anyone could expect from a daughter. Probably more. And she does it with (outward) calm and exemplary grace. A treasurable girl indeed.